Namibia has approved TotalEnergies’ proposed offshore licence swap with Galp Energia, clearing the way for the companies to finalise the deal as TotalEnergies pushes toward a final investment decision on its Venus oil development.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said Namibia’s Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy approved the transaction last week, with closing expected within days once final administrative steps are complete. The deal restructures ownership across PELs 83, 56 and 91: TotalEnergies will take operatorship of PEL 83, home to the Mopane discovery, acquiring Galp’s 40% operated interest there, while Galp receives a 10% stake in PEL 56 and a 9.39% stake in PEL 91, both tied to the Venus development. TotalEnergies will also fund half of Galp’s exploration, appraisal and early development costs on PEL 83, to be repaid from Galp’s future share of project cash flows.

Pouyanné said talks with the Namibian government and consortium partners on Venus are nearing completion, with the company ready to sanction the project once outstanding agreements are finalised; the partners are targeting a final investment decision by the end of July or shortly after, and Pouyanné said aligning the two projects under a coordinated strategy would create operational synergies across the Orange Basin.

Once the swap closes, TotalEnergies will accelerate appraisal drilling on the Mopane discovery to define the resource ahead of a separate investment decision targeted around 2028. The transaction consolidates TotalEnergies’ position across Namibia’s two largest offshore discoveries, with Venus in PELs 56 and 91 and Mopane in PEL 83 expected to underpin the country’s emergence as a major oil producer later this decade.

Source: prospect-intel.com